Adventures in Eschatos

Things settled in the deep of the temple, we examine our surroundings. The large runic circle engraved in the floor looms ominously. The pommel of the sword of the leader Eladrin rolls off as the bodies of the fallen lay around us. The pommel stone has strange markings and is lukewarm with destiny. We barely get a moment to think on that when the world goes gray, our senses betray us, and reality shifts out of alignment.

When we regain focus we find ourselves in a log cabin. Cozy. Fire crackling. Stew cooking. A man sits in the corner. We have many questions. He has answers. But his answers are almost riddles. He tells us of the stone. But we don’t know what it is. He tells us that many factions are vying for it. But we don’t know exactly who they are. He says that the stone will always find its way back to us. He says we are the bringers of the Nothing.

What does one say to that? And where exactly are we? It’s time we were on our way but as we open the door to the outside, we notice a problem. There isn’t so much an “outside” as there is a chasm of dark gray endlessness. No sky. No ground. Nothing in any direction. We’re encouraged to jump to get back to the Temple. Hurray.

Back in Talum we study our list of “interested parties” to better understand what’s happening around us. Little information is available, but we piece together a few things. A location of a stone ruin formation in the Elven Forrest appears to be essentially our only line of investigation. So we head South, again on horseback.

After some days riding we approach a band of mercs, led by a dragonborn. They block our path and tell us to hand them the stone. We try to pump them for information about why and who, but it leads only to weapons becoming unsheathed. The battle is hard and fast in melee, but two annoying elven archers pick at us from a distance. We knock out the dragonborn, to question later, and run down the twin elves to “suggest” they lay down arms.

The heat of battle now cooled off, we ask the leader to explain himself. All he can offer us is a parchment with a cipher of his instructions. He doesn’t know anything useful and we cut them loose. We give a glance at the paper. It’s just a few sentences in our common script, but the letters are all jumbled. A closer look at it, later. For now: travel.

We come to a fork in the road, or rather literally, a boot in the road. Another boot. Silver loves the boot. He doesn’t know why, but it makes him smile. We follow the small trail the boot was marking. Not long we spot brother boot. He stands guard for a log cabin. We’ve had such luck with cabins before. This should go swimmingly.

We collect our boots and enter. It’s refreshing to be out of the cold and rain. Nice and warm. Accommodations with four beds. There are four of us. It’s almost too perfect, but the day has been long and the beds are very, very inviting. So inviting. So sleepy. Maybe just a few winks…

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace the Nothing

A time traveler, minotaur, junior investigator, and thief treasure hunter walk into a Temple…

Two weeks ago the world greeted us with a yawn. Now we’re marked as the bringers of the Nothing. You might be asking yourself why. I think we’re all asking the same thing.

The Temple of Kroan- home to more than the history books suggest. Ask Wald, although he may be updating the pages on the fly.

Glass-eyed goblins litter this place. They are armed and have set traps and are defending… something, but the look (or rather lack of look) in their eyes suggest they are not in command here. We push through a corridor filled with them to find a completely decayed ancient library that has long lost it’s texts to time. All the texts except one, weighted down by a moonstone on a magical dais, preserved for what could have been an eternity, seemingly for us to discover.

We barely have time to glance at it when another horde of sneaky little bastard goblins hear us from the next room. We bang the door open to find a goblin rat-shaman and his band of archers and stabbers and little foaming berserkers. Taking a minute to handle the initial onslaught we employed the tried and true method of “if they can’t see us, they can’t hurt us” and shut the door. This was then the pattern. Shut door, gather breath, open door, (wave), pew pew, shut door, repeat. Eventually whittling them down to just the leader shaman and some lackeys, we press fully into their room and thoroughly gut them.

Combing over the dead we relieve them of some silver pieces and Bren picks up a sparkly longsword (although it doesn’t seem to be helping him in the kill count, zing). And we get to take a proper look at the uncorrupted script.

deep within the Grey times
a band of three
and a ring of one
horns will blaze and
steel clash
to seek truth and unlock
Knowledge
for fame and fortune long forgotten
the Rune will be
theirs
which will signal
Nothing.

Oh goodie.

We let that wash over us as we proceed further into the temple, finding ourselves before a great arch, lined with runic ancient words, barring us from our path. Whispers creep into our minds in a haunting language that feels familiar but remains a mystery. As the voices increase the pressure in our heads we race to find meaning in the runes and unlock the way forward. Coordinating our efforts we discern the patterns and enter the right combination of runes. The magical barrier drops out and the ghosts in our minds are instantly silenced. A little shaken and hesitant, we press on.

A long hallway leads us to a room marked with a large runic circle set in the tiles of the floor, with arcane symbols in the center. The bodies of three eladrin rest upon raised pedestals. The instant we break the plane to the room, the central one hovers from his place and levitates upright. He says the prophecy is now complete. We are here. And he cannot let us continue.

A salvo of failed diplomacy later we resign to the inevitable battle and meet our destiny head on. The hovering glass-eyed eladrin silently wakes his recumbent friends and summons three of the ugliest tentacle monster ooze things we have ever seen. Actually they are the only tentacle monster ooze things we have ever seen, but I’d imagine they are probably pretty ugly even among their own kind.

This battle tested us to our very core. Focus fire on the main eladrin was probably wise as his attacks hit hard and rendered us immobile, but during that time his companions were able to pick at us and wear us down. The tentacle beasts lashed out at us and we could feel them in our minds, a sensation I’m not willing to relive any time soon. The other eldarin relentless clawed at us with hands like granite. Wald was constantly refreshing our spirits and just when things were looking the worst for our group he called forth his holy might and imbued us with divine defense, thus able to fend off the constant barrage and turn the battle in our favor.

Exhausted from battle, the prophetic words still echo in our ears. What is it that we have done…

A battle and a prophecy

As the last of the tentacle creatures fall, you breath a sigh of relief. The aches, bruises, and cuts of the last day are starting to catch up with you, and you could really use some rest. Those thoughts are wiped away, as you hearing faint laughing behind you.

You turn to see the lead Eladrin, who is lying on his back, propped up slightly with his elbows behind him. Blood stains his blonde hair, and his dead white eyes fall upon you. He feebly raises his hand and points at Bren.

“You… You were first into the ring…” He motions to the arcane circle he lies within. “My prophecy has been set into motion, and will not be stopped.”

He stops to raise his hand to his mouth as he coughs up blood. “You all have brought about the end of all things,” he says softly. Suddenly, his elbows give out from under him, and he lays within the circle.

“I am Erevenn, and we are nothing.”

With those words, he grabs his sword and holds it to his chest, the original position you saw when you first encountered him. His physical body fades out of existence, leaving only his clothing and armor behind. The other two eladrin fade out of existence as well, leaving behind only their robes.

His sword fades out of existence with him, however, the pommel of sword falls out, clinking softly on his chest. It’s a smooth black stone engraved with a rune.

Beginnings

We start the session in media res with the party breaking through the tree line in front of a Temple of Kroan after a 12 day journey. Staring back at them is a group of goblins and a large guardian drake. The drake charges the party as Silver hides in a tree. After dispatching their foes, we flashback to where it all began…

Thefts have been on rise, centered around Silver’s family. Wald decides to investigate with the town guard.

Grugg enters town, and runs afoul of a (racist) nobleman. He is (reluctantly) arrested by the town guard.

As Wald and Silver talk briefly about the thefts, a loud noise comes from the kitchen. Upon arriving, they find a very old and dirty Bren coming out of the pantry with a pot on his head. He is arrested for theft, trespassing, and being a dirty hobo.

Confirming their suspicions that Bren was not the thief, Wald and Silver go to pay a visit to the local jail, and speak with Jailer James, who is currently being driven to drink by the ramblings of an old man, who unbeknownst to him, is slowly growing younger before his eyes.

Wald and Silver, with the help of Grugg’s pleasant demeanor, convince James to leave as they speak with Bren. A few key facts are learned: Bren thinks he’s from 10,000 years in the past. Grugg believes him. Wald and Bren know about an Eladrin temple where portals and things were alleged to be practiced.

Bren and Grugg are released from jail, and the group decides to go explore the Temple, looking for any information about what may have happened to Bren.

After buying supplies, they strike out. On day 10 of their journey, as they are deep in the Valenae Forest, they setup camp for the night. A beautiful, mostly-not-clothed elf maiden approaches their camp. She speaks in elvish, telling Bren that his debt has come to term, and her Master will collect. Silver is amused. Bren comes clean with his nature, explaining that he struck a deal with nature itself, and wasn’t really clear on the terms.

We then catch up with the beginning of our story, and upon investigating the goblins for loots, they discover the goblins and drake all have dead white, iris and pupil-less eyes. The investigate the interior of the temple, finding a secret staircase triggered by a wall switch. Deep down the stairs they go, finding a corridor dimly light by wall sconces. They discover another small group of goblins, which turn into a larger group of goblins, and a trap lining the corridor which triggers spears to shoot up from the floor. They dispatch the goblins, taking their share of licks as well, and look down to another set of stairs leading further down.

Just a quick note...

When creating Adventure Logs (which is not mandatory, but requested if possible), please add tags to include your character’s name and the tag “journal”, along with any other appropriate tags as necessary. This is done in the Tags fields below the Body, where you type up your post. You simply enclose the tag in quotes, and multiple tags can be entered by simply leaving a space between them. Thanks.